The Principle of "Damage Exclusion" as a Benchmark in Catholic Discussions of Homologous Artificial Insemination.

The Catholic perspective rejects assisted human reproduction techniques, but the morality of artificial insemination (AI) is open for discussion. This article aims to analyze the morality of AI from a new angle, namely whether these interventions exclude all possibility of damaging the human embryo and the offspring's health. The scientific evidence about the children's health who are born through AI allows us to affirm that the procedures do not comply with the principle of damage exclusion: AI does not exclude all possibility of damaging the embryo and impacting the health and exposure to disease of the offspring born through these techniques.

Gamete donation in France: the future of the anonymity doctrine.

In France, since the approval of the first bioethics laws in 1994, the principle of the anonymity of sperm donors has prevailed. This choice is regularly challenged, namely by children who have been conceived under these conditions and have now reached adulthood. In this paper, we will briefly describe the reasons that led practitioners of assisted reproduction to endorse the anonymity principle in 1994. Secondly, we will elaborate on the reasons why this principle is becoming so controversial today. Finally, we shall examine two possible outcomes of the debate, highlighting their respective legitimacy as well as their consequences, as far as the rights of children, the notion of the family, and medical practice are concerned.

Sperm retrieval from terminally ill or recently deceased patients: a review.

OBJECTIVE: Requests for sperm extraction in terminally ill or recently deceased patients have been increasing with the gained acceptance and success of assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This review aims to outline the many challenges associated with these requests. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical literature surrounding ethical and legal issues of posthumous sperm extraction was examined. RESULTS: Several issues within the field of sperm extraction in the terminally ill patient and the postmortem patient still arouse a significant amount of debate and controversy. One controversial factor surrounds the issue of consent for the tissue extraction and determining when family consent is valid. Other discussions have involved ethical issues, logistics (including cost), and legal issues. CONCLUSIONS: A medical center protocol governing sperm extraction from terminally ill or recently deceased patients would be beneficial, and would likely alleviate stress among the patients' families and healthcare providers. To overcome some of the difficulties surrounding the issue of consent, it might also be valuable for men about to get married or enter into a similar relationship to document their wishes for sperm retrieval should a tragic situation arise. This could be done in the same way that they would prepare a living will.

The ethics and role of AI with fresh and frozen semen in dogs.

The use of artificial insemination (AI) with fresh semen has resulted in many benefits for the management of dog breeding, but there are disadvantages that can sometimes be overlooked. Furthermore, poorer quality semen arising as a result of cryopreservation necessitates uterine insemination, which raises the potential for surgical insemination. A number of significant ethical concerns have been raised by key stakeholders (such as The Kennel Club and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) about AI per se, but particularly about the use of surgical insemination. This paper discusses the technological development of AI and explores a number of the ethical issues raised by its application to dog breeding. An Ethical Matrix method is used to map the potential ethical issues for key interest groups, namely dogs, breeders, owners, veterinarians and wider society. There are national variations in the way in which institutions have evaluated potential ethical impacts, and this is reflected in the different regulatory frameworks governing the use of AI in dogs. In order to facilitate decision-making and reduce some of the ethical risks associated with this technology, the veterinary research community could take several proactive steps including: (i) clarifying clinical decision-making processes, (ii) enhancing informed choice among clients and (iii) increasing the knowledge-base of potential impacts of AI.

[Advances in biotechnologies applied to the reproduction of the human species: ethical considerations]. / Avances de las biotecnologías aplicadas a la reproducción de la especie humana: problemática que plantea.

In the last decades, we have seen the emergence of new biotechnologies designed to assist reproduction in domestic animals. More restraint consi- derations of each technological advance should be made before its application to human medicine. This article discussed the moral status of the embryo, the dehumanising aspects of procedures as well as the social implications and argue what regulation if any should restrict the use of these biotechnologies in the human species.

[Surrogacy in Maternity. A Depersonalising Human Relationship Phenomenology]. / La Subrogación en la Maternidad. Fenomenología de una Interacción Humana Despersonalizadora.

Ethical and bioethical problems, which are typical of the practice of surrogate motherhood, refer to its protagonists: the couple that orders it, due to its demand to satisfy the desire of paternity and maternity and the promptness of having a female body to fulfill its aspirations; the expectant mother, and the physical and psychic repercussions coming from the role performed in the surrogacy contract, as well as the risks of manipulation and exploitation, related to her position; the baby and his right to grow counting on the certainty of his parental relationships and on the preservation of his emotional balance. The human and anthropological importance of these issues, along with the growing development of this practice in the world, has questioned our moral conscience. In this context, the expectant mother, the weakest and the most affected part among the parts involved in the surrogacy contract, demands a particular attention. In this sense, the aim of this work is to lead a phenomenological analysis of the different steps of the practice of surrogacy, from the first stage of collection and classification of the information referring to the candidates, to the stage of the insemination and of its consequences about to the private life of the expectant. On the other hand, this work tries to justify the existence of a parallelism, as for the exploitation of the female body, between the practice of surrogate motherhood and prostitution. Finally, the issue relating to the effective social emancipation of the surrogate women in poor countries, the real autonomy and the freedom of their decision, as well as the typical features of the desire of paternity of the ordering couple are dealt with. The carried out study has allowed to conclude that this practice always implies a degree of physical, psychic and moral exploitation of the expectant mother, which suggests its prohibition at global level.

Great expectations--German debates about artificial insemination in humans around 1912.

In May 1912, reports on successful attempts at artificial insemination hit the German papers. Over the following months, the topic was taken up in medical lectures, in the debates of medical associations, and in medical journals. The technique--which had not much changed since the days of James Marion Sims--apparently triggered the imagination of scientists, medical doctors, journalists and authors. That artificial insemination met such interest, however, was not primarily due to its medical usefulness or proven success. Given that insemination with donor sperm was out of the question for most doctors and that ideas about the fertile period within the menstrual cycle were erroneous, contemporary attempts at insemination in humans hardly ever worked. Public interest in this topic rather reflects the desires and expectations which contemporaries associated with artificial insemination and with modern, scientific medicine. What appears to be a comparatively straight forward, low-tech operation today was imagined as a way or creating life artificially. Thus the topic was able to mobilise fears and expectations. The debate not only reflected contemporary beliefs about the possibilities and dangers of modern medicine, it also addressed the meaning of reproduction and infertility and the future of gender relations.

Technical procedure and ethical behaviour in biotechnologies of reproduction.

BACKGROUND: The significant and constant progress of biotechnologies applied to sterility and infertility has induced a deeper reflection about bioethical problems. The analysis of only the biological dimension, about the results achieved and desirable future prospects, decreases, leaving out the anthropological dimension. It is therefore necessary to make reference to both the limits of the basic or applied research and to the usual welfare procedure. The aim, that the article sets itself, is to proceed to the bioethical analysis of the most significant topics of artificial insemination and assisted procreation; and it submits to anthropological evaluation the technical aspects, which characterize both the procreation techniques and the research prospects in this area. METHODS: The bioethical analysis, used as a method of study and research, has availed itself of structured reasoning through the evaluation of the scientific, anthropological and legal-deontological dimensions, from an interdisciplinary point of view. The definition of the ethical norm, supported by authors, has been inferred from the analysis of the above-mentioned dimensions, considering the already known bioethical models. In particular, the authors analyse these topics through the model of ontologically based personalism, which suggests, and highlights, ethical norms, both as regards the basic and applied research and as regards usual welfare procedure, in opposition to models like moral sociologism, biologism, moral evolutionism and contractualism. From the beginning we defined "technical procedure" and "ethical behaviour", highlighting the interaction between them. We have made a distinction between artificial insemination, as a substitutive technique, and assisted procreation, as a facilitative technique. In addition through biological and anthropological results we have evaluated the embryo both ontologically and biologically. So we have defined "ontological and biological embryo status". RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the proposed topics for assisted procreation and against artificial insemination, the interaction between technical procedure and ethical behaviour, the acknowledgement of the embryo and personal dignity in every procedure are the principal results and the conclusions that we have arrived at, as regards the bioethical model of ontologically based personalism.

[Posthumous sperm procurement and use--ethical and legal dilemmas]. / Etické a legislativní otázky odberu a uzití spermií zemrelého.

OBJECTIVE: To present a review of bioethical discussion and recommendations concerning posthumous sperm procurement and postmortem parenthood. DESIGN: Review article. SETTING: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Masaryk University, Brno, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Palacky University, Olomouc. SUBJECT AND METHOD: Literature search in Database of Abstracts of Reviews of the Evidence (DARE) and MEDLINEplus. Posthumous sperm procurement and cryopreservation must be performed within 36 hours after death. To established appropriate medical practice, it is important to consider all stakeholders in the decision-making process: the deceased, the requesting party, the child, the physician and the society. There are only few legislative measures concerning postmortem parenthood and posthumous sperm procurement. The essential elements for postmortem reproduction are: judicial order, ethics committee approval, bereavement period of at least 6 month before use. CONCLUSION: Posthumous sperm procurement is fraught with ethical and legal implications. All stakeholder should be considered. Society for reproductive medicine should prepare acceptable standard protocol.

[The right to be born and the need to be born healthy... questions in medical ethics]. / Il diritto di nascere e il dovere di nascere sano... questioni di etica medica.

INTRODUCTION: Science, thanks to the commitment of huge amount of human capitals, in many cases supported even by enormous fund investment, gain continuously ground reaching new position and spreading out the borders on human chances in a sphere so delicate like birth. New genetic screening tests, new contraceptive drugs using even more sophisticated features, comply with the new law on assisted insemination, put up new challenges involving all the scientific-social environments and necessitate precise answers on ethical side, but even concrete commitment on vocational training. PROBLEM: In this case we take working examples distinguished only on perception, as the pre-implant diagnosis, the morning after pill, and certain about the recent legislation on assisted insemination, to highlight their common scientific and cultural milieu. These problems call for an unquestionable and unique response, to restore clarity about choices involving the need and ability on human being to look for and find answers about existential matter as the beginning of life. Human being value and its significance need to be relentlessly restated, just because they are endlessly debated by a synergy of the emotional point of view, even impressive, and new stand out techniques. PROPOSAL: in that sense vocational training is undeniable goal, even more, but not only, in a Faculty of Medicine. A student needs to learn to reflect on the relations between scientific forthcoming and their ethical and bioethical repercussion.

Maternidad sin padre: ¿Alguien piensa en el hijo? / Maternity without a father: Does anyone think of the son?

La procreación, misterio y realidad,encierra esperanzas e incertidumbres. Su marco ha sido modificado por las nuevas técnicas de reproducción asistida,que abren escenarios antes inimaginables. Aquí una reflexión lúcida sobre uno de los inconvenientes planteados,originalmente publicada en Políticaplus (http://bit.ly/2jc8yqG) que comparte la nota con INMANENCIA.